HOLY WOOD
GODEATGOD
The story begins with Adam dreaming. The first sound is that of the revolver heard in "Count to 6 and Die", but here it is a strange echo. We then hear fireworks over cheering and yelling. There is also a sound increasing in pitch with something akin to thunder just underneath. These three things representative of moments that will show themselves again in less dream-like states. Adam is having a premonition of things to come. His own attempted suicide, the funeral of Coma Black, and his ascension to "heaven". The title GODEATGOD as a phrase is our first hint of the endless cycle that the Triptych will play out.
From here, we begin with narration from Adam as he witnesses the dream. Manson utilizes many styles in his words through00out the Triptych, this one of being of symbolism and a sort of nursery rhyme or biblical passage. This is our first taste of the duality in Adam's life of things that are actually happening and things that may just be in his head. I believe the intention was to showcase that what we are visualizing a fever dream of things to come.
Adam first has visions of martyrdom both of the past and future. He has a front row seat to the death of God. Adam has tenderness for the situation, "Do you wanna tear your knuckles down, and hold yourself? Do you want to climb off that tree?" Then he envisions modern incident in the shape of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Adam's subconcious is struggling with the concept of the power to save those he loves, though at a high price.
Then, we get more premonitions. "Before the bullets. Before the flies." He's having vague visions of Coma Black's death and his own rotting, yet "living" body. "Before authorities take out my eyes." This I will go more into later, but this is a reference to him selling out to attain more influence and power.
"The only smiling are you dolls that I made, but you are plastic and so are your brains." This is jumping past Holy Wood and into Mechanical Animals, wherein Adam is merely a conciousness trapped in space, serving as a server for the mechanical christ on earth. Adam and many before and after him were essentially "dolls" serving the will of a higher power. Though he also sees the populace of earth as "dolls" in a different way. Like the residents of Holy Wood, the stars of The Dope Show. More on that later.
"The sky is as blue as a gunshot wound." Again more evidence of strange visuals that are attributed to Adam's dream state. "If you were alive, you know we'd kill you." Adam sees the high price of being a God or Christ or angel, and we have our first taste of his inner disdain for those around him. A thought-seed that will come into play later on when dealing with "his" new found power.
THE LOVE SONG
Adam is still dreaming. It begins with drums that will later be played again on "Valentine's Day" but with some slight rhythmic and effect changes to serve as a sort of "Theme for Coma Black". This section of his dream sets up his motivation throughout the entire triptych, love and its effects on Adam, for better or worse.
Again, more symbolic imagery that supports that Adam is dreaming. As a bullet, Adam says, "I've got a crush on a pretty pistol. Should I tell her that I feel this way. I've got love songs in my head, that are killing us away." He feels guilty. He is unsure of how to handle his love for Coma Black. But he is also seeing the future, that of how when one pursues the idea of love in such a vigorous fashion in can burrow into your brain and heart like a worm that can gestate into something more sinister, hence Antichrist Superstar.
Now, we have our first narrative voice change. A voice of the controlling authority of Holy Wood preaching their propaganda to an intensely receptive crowd. "Do you love your Guns?!" The answer, "Yeah!". "God?!" The answer, "Yeah!" "Government?!" Fuck yeah!!" Adam is struggling deeply with the power that he resists against in the waking world with his music.
"She tells me I'm a pretty bullet. Gonna be a star someday. She tells me I'm a pretty bullet. An imitation Christ." Coma Black cares for Adam deeply. She loves and supports his ideals and actions, but she sees something else in him. In his dream she is telling him he will become Christ-like. He will cheat his way to power and pay a terrible price for it. Another seed planted by Adam's uncertain conscience that will cause him to fall when he walks the line.
Adam has seen his future, and it will not end well. "I've got love songs in my head, killing us away" Over and over and over. Then at the close, one more bit to show that these first two tracks were part of a dream. A strange, disembodied, jarbly voice, repeating something cyclically.
THE FIGHT SONG
Adam is wide awake now. Manson returns the style to clean tones and straightforward attack with more precise language. This is Adam's music and his message. But different than what he usually creates. He is no longer afraid but he feels like his thoughts and words are coming from somewhere he's never been.
"Isolation is the oxygen mask you make your children breathe in to survive. I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist. I'm not a slave to a world that doesn't give a shit. And when we were good, you just closed your eyes. So when we are bad, we'll scar your minds." A bold mission statement to cast off the old and it's submissive way of living. Adam sees their submissiveness as something to exploit and punish. Something in him no longer wants to stand idly by.
And then a sinsiter omen. "The death of one is a tragedy. The death of millions is just a statistic." The death of one is the Christ-death. That of those before him and later his own but also of Coma Black. The death of millions will be those of his followers that he cares for, but also those that betrayed him whom he will later exact doom and terror upon.
DISPOSABLE TEENS
The continuation of the mission statement set forth in "The Fight Song", yet even more aggressive and nihilistic, with allusions to grandeur. He's brought his thoughts out of his head and his bedroom to his band to create the first rally cry. The seeds are sprouting. "I'm an ape of God. I've got a face that's made for violence upon." God is degraded to flesh and blood and Adam is one with him in his peril. There is something telling in his statement of surving abortion. Adam was the child not meant to be. Out of hate and despair, his parents meant him dead, but miraculously survived perhaps to fulfill a greater prophecy. This is further proven by, "I want thank you mom. I want to thank you dad. For bringing this fucking world to a bitter end. I never really hated the one true God. But the god of the people I hated." There is hate growing in him. The world his parents brought to an end was one of love that Adam will never truly live in. Again he feels one with God, for his parents blame him for their unhappiness. He hates how people misappropriate their allegiance to god.
Further on his ideals, "You say you wanted evolution. The ape was a great big hit. You say want a revolution man, and I say that you're full of shit." What once was, has done nothing for true evolution/revolution. The old ways are dead and Adam has a new agenda to destroy Holy Wood. "The more that you fear us, the bigger we get. And don't be surprised if we destroy it." At all costs, in a world where he is strong in love and hate he will exact revenge and bring about a new order.
TARGET AUDIENCE (NARCISSUS NARCOSIS)
Adam and his band have converted millions to his cause. "The Fight Song" and "Disposable Teens" were massive hits, catapulting Adam to superstardom. Now he turns his sights more directly at the powers of Holy Wood and how their regime has destroyed the minds of his fans. He's running down the list of their long history of human deceit. This is his first real world mention of Kennedy and his empathy and admiration for his death. He uses Aldous Huxley and William Shakespeare as figureheads for how art is systematically used as scapegoat for the problems of the world. But the truth is that their false gods and religion have destroyed the human potential. "You're apple's sticking in to my throat. Sorry your Sunday smiles are rusty nails. And your crucifiction commercials failed." And the rest as description of their despicable religions. And his fans will not stand for it anymore because he knows and they know they've been manipulated. "I see all the young believers. Your target audience. I see all the old deceivers. We all just sing their song."
"Am I sorry for Booth and Oswald, pinks and cocaine too? I'm sorry you never check the bag in my head for a bomb and my halo was a needle hole." Here may lie the first blatant threat to Holy Wood. Not only does he make it clear that he despises everything Holy Wood stands for but is making a clear threat towards them by sympathising with historical assassins. That he himself is the weapon, and that clearly he is promoting heavy drug use as well. He is a clear and present danger.
And then he finally enters the realm of pure freedom. And another narrative voice enters. That of the one within in him. This is the first taste we get of what I'm sure is Adam's dissociative disorder though this one is the most benign. "Valley of Death we are free. Your father's your prison you see." He is no longer just the awful boy his parents hate. He loves himself and has purpose. Valley of Death is a makeshift village where he and some of his closest followers reside, on the outskirts of Holy Wood. Something akin to that featured in the video for "Man That You Fear". But there is something on the horizon. The phrase "Narcissus Narcosis" as the sub-title for the song is telling of Adam getting high on his own supply in a way. He's quickly caught up in his stature as a Christ figure and it's the beginning of his downfall.
Then, in the final moments of the track, a new, clearly robotic voice says "The President is dead. Let us pray." Adam believes the true power lies in Holy Wood, but it lies in a yet unexplained organization that has existed in Earth's orbit for millenia. They have heard the news from earth that Adam has assassinated the President and many other powers of the nation. They are pleased, for it was prophesied it would be so. They are watching Adam. Always have been. They will soon approach him with an offer he can't refuse.
"PRESIDENT DEAD"
The president, along with various friends, religious, and corporate leaders were on a plane headed to a high-profile religious summit. Adam had warned they were unaware of how powerful he could be. "President Dead is clueless." He made specific reference to checking the bag in his head in "Target Audience". Here he states, "Incubated and jet-set, the bitter thinkers buy their tickets to go find God like a piggy in a fair." Two mentions of airline related situations would support my theory of blowing up the plane en route. Adam declares, "This is for the people, they want you. Getting high on violence, baby." Adam has committed an atrocity believing fully in his violent act and that the world will eat it up in so many proper and despicable ways. No matter who hears of the incident, he will be giving them what they want.
So the residents of The Valley of Death celebrate. This is where the fireworks come to life from his dream. With copious amounts of drugs. For Adam he's used drugs his whole life. Whether it be mood enhancers or ritalin, weed or alcohol. He finds no harm in it, but his dissociative disorder is singular to him. He shares copious amounts of hard drugs with his followers. He himself now is doping the masses. He does not see the irony. "Give the pills time to work. We can't all be martyred in the winter of our discontent." Days and weeks pass. "Every night we are nailed in to place. Every night we just can't seem to ever remember the reasons why." He has his people sedated. They forget who they are, where they come from, what they stand for. And Adam himself enjoys it on a physical and mental level. He is the high priest and will not relinquish his power and he wants to make sure that everyone else knows they can not be like him.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE VALLEY OF DEATH
Some time has passed and Adam's village has fallen into shambles. There's deep sadness and a feeling of destruction in the cyclical screaming of the baby. They numbed themselves for too long and lost track of their revolution and a retaliatory attack from Holy Wood was certain. Nearly all of the Valley was slaughtered. Adam has lost his way and his faith in himself. "We have no future. Heaven wasn't made for me." He realizes the party's over and he will never become as strong as he wanted to be. "I wish that I could be the king. Then I'd know that I'm not alone." His core weakness is revealed. He is weak and vulnerable and feeling that he betrayed all those he loved. Especially Coma Black. The one he truly loved. The one who truly loved him. Before everything had happened she insisted he stop taking his medication and not use drugs and alcohol to escape anymore. That is when he had his dream at the beginning. His brain started firing on all cylinders. All his power and gusto stem from her. His mind got twisted, and then twisted another way. "She put the seeds in me. Plant this dying tree. She's a burning string. I'm just the ashes." He understands he betrayed her by using drugs again and becoming megalomaniacal. What she sees as leading to the attack and death of all their friends. He sees everything around him and in the world as death. He can't see hope or happiness anymore. In his weakness, he drops to the ground shivering in poor health and emotional despair, feeling as if his true father, God, has forsaken him. He speaks to God, and God answers. An "angel" appears to him. In order for him to redeem himself, and save his followers and his cause, he must become something else. In the wake of the attack, they could make the world believe him dead. He would die for his cause. In his martyrdom, his followers could rise to power again, fighting in his name, to resist Holy Wood. They offer him the chance of eternal life and endless power in exchange for his sacrifice. To him, he could restore the power back to his people (out of love), and make Coma Black believe he were dead as atonement for his sins (out of hate). Suddenly he finds himself in a metal shell, ascending into the light. This is where that sound of ascension comes from at the beginning of GODEATGOD. After the murder of the president, the fireworks, and the sound of going to "heaven" ringing through his being, Adam feels like he is finally fulfilling his destiny.
CRUCI-FICTION IN SPACE
Adam will evolve. We begin with a different narrator. One of the "angels" in "heaven". The alien form that has dictated human events for thousands of years under the guise of being gods or angels. To them, a day is a blink of an eye. They can see all forwards and backwards. Time is irrelevant. They are taking Adam into the orbiting station to bestow unto him what has been bestowed upon many god-like humans. To see and think as the aliens do but also incredible strength and resilience. "This is evolution. The monkey. The man. Then the gun." They've watched man rise and fall many times before. A weapon of any sort is always inevitable.
They parlay unto Adam a story of the ages. They speak of Eden, Christ, and JFK. How they intertwine in meaning and outcome. Time is inconsequential, and so is man.
Adam has risen through space and is now aboard the station, receiving the procedure. We hear the sounds of cables, or wiring skittering about. His human body is being transformed mechanically. Passable as human, but indestructible and powerful. A cyborg much like Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation. Now Adam is the narrator again. "I am a revolution. Pull my knuckles down if I could." He's is giving in to the next phase of his Christ-death, with only one last resitance. "I am a revelation, and I'm nailed to the Holy Wood." The resistant thoughts are fleeting as he understands his place in history and his duty to destroy Holy Wood.
We hear one more narrator, the echoes of in Adam's head of his followers in the Valley of Death just before he left Earth. "We are dead and tomorrow's cancelled because of things we did yesterday." A thought that plays over in his head to remind himself that his pain is temporary and that he will return to save them. And then Adam himself repeats over and over what he's been told by the aliens when his procedure began. "This is evolution. The monkey, the man, then the gun." He's taking comfort in that mantra as his conciosness is being torn from the confines of his brain into a digital server on board the orbiting station. His mind will stay intact there as his new mechanical body descends back to Earth. The final recitations of the mantra take on a a sort of reverb that implies his mind is settling quietly into its new digital home. It whispers and trails off in a digital haze.
In the liner notes to the record the final printed, yet unspoken, line is "...flies are waiting." Possible the final words he heard from the aliens before descending completely into the servers. It serves as a prophecy to them, that death is on the horizon. Through Adam. Of Adam.
A PLACE IN THE DIRT
Adam is having his another dream. The aliens let his mind rest and adjust to its new home in the server. He recalls more echoes of words from his followers. "We are damned, and we are dead. All god's children to be sent to our perfect place in the sun, in the dirt." Then Adam longs, "There's a windshield in my heart. We are bugs so smeared and scarred." He still puts the weight of the world on himself. His thoughts move to what he will do to avenge. He screams out from his digital cage. "Could you stop the meat from thinking before I swallow of it? Could you please?" He knows what he must do but the loving side of him has remorse for his future actions.
But he soon relents and accepts his status in the long line of Christ-deaths. "Put me in the motorcade. Put me in the death parade. Dress me up and make me your dying god." He will do whatever it takes to exact his anger upon Holy Wood and save his followers.
This his mind wanders in the dream to more details of the procedure, including a taste of the personality disorder we are to experience through the rest of the saga. "Angel, with needles, poked through our eyes and let the ugly light of the world in. And we were no longer blind." The usage of "our" here is Adam's first utterance to us that he is a digital conciousness in space controlling a cyborg version of himself on Earth. His mind controls the thought and relays it to the body.
He is awake now. "Now we hold the "ugly head". The Mary-whore is at the bed." The cyborg version of his self is the "ugly head". The new version of himself is stronger but not divine like his mind. "We" again is him speaking for his mind separated from his body. And some figure waits nearby to monitor his condition. Adam thinks to himself, "They've cast the shadow of "our" perfect death. In the sun. In the dirt." So shall it be done.
THE NOBODIES
Now the narrator is that of one his followers leading what's left of the people in the Valley of Death. They have left the Valley and have gone to the borders of Holy Wood, asking for immunity and acceptance into their population. "Today I am dirty, and I want to be pretty. Tomorrow, I know I'm just dirt. We are the nobodies. We wanna be somebodies." They give up. Their home is destroyed and they believe Adam dead.
The narrator shifts again to that of a representative of the high counsel of Holy Wood. "Some children died the other day. We fed machines and then we prayed. Puked up and down in morbid faith. You should have seen the ratings that day."
THE DEATH SONG
The residents of the Valley of Death are received inside the limits of Holy Wood. It's a montage of all the fucked up shit going on in the streets. Like stepping into Times Square and Sunset Boulevard, all smashed and mutated and high on fucking bath salts. "We take a pill, get a face, buy a ticket. And we hope that heaven is true." One whispers to another after walking past a storefront. "I saw a cop beat a priest on the TV. And they know they killed our heroes too." But they play it cool. Stay in line. Sing The Death Song. "Because we've got no future. And we want to be just like you. Let's sing the Death song, kids." They are taken to a neon church to repent for their sins. "We light a candle on an Earth we made into Hell. And pretend that we're in heaven. each time we do we get the blind man's ticket." But within themselves the memory of their revolution will not die. "And we know that nothing's true." They leave the church. One whispers again, "I saw a priest kill a cop on the TV." But they are overheard and questioned of their intent. They quickly back-peddle. "And I know they're our heroes too." They whisper back to the confused children, "We sing the Death song, kids, because we've got no future." They turn back to the guards and proclaim, "And we wanna be just like you."
As they are further corraled through the streets of Holy Wood to their new living quarters, they think to themselves, "We write our prayers on a little bomb, kiss it on the face and send it to god." Their prayers are a hybrid of this new religious-state they live in and the old revolution. Their little bomb is Adam. They pray to him and his memory. They want him to return and destroy this foul place.
LAMB OF GOD
The first narrator of this chapter is that of the aliens working to inform Adam of his new place on Earth. He is fully aware and resentful of his choice. They present to him the world they live in, and what they have controlled and witnessed. "There was Christ in the metal shell. There was blood on the pavement." What once was always shall be. Now they put it into modern terms to show how him how to get what he wants. "The camera will make you god. That's how Jack became sainted. If you die when there is no one watching. Then your ratings drop and you're forgotten. But if they kill you on their TV you're a martyr and a lamb of god."
Adam resists. His "heart" is broken. He has caught word that his followers have given in and assimilated into Holy Wood. "Nothing's going to change. Nothing's going to change the world."
The aliens speak again. Appealing to all the thoughts and imagery they've been able to capture from his digitized consciousness. "There was Lennon in the happy gun. There were words on the pavement. We were looking for the lamb of god. We were looking for Mark David (Chapman)." Again they plead, and again he argues with them. The aliens talk amongst themselves. "It took three days for him to die so the Born Again could buy the serial rights." They need a new tactic. They turn to Adam. "Lamb of God, have mercy on us. Lamb of God won't you grant us..." Again Adam and the aliens argue argue back and forth.
BORN AGAIN
The aliens give up. Now we have a confrontation between Adam and his new body. Adam is like the hard drive to its RAM. Two parts with their own functions shooting vaguely for the same goal. Adam the heart, it the ego and cock. The Mecanical Christ speaks, "Do you or don't you want this to be your song? It doesn't take a rebel to sing along. This art is weak in its pretty, pretty frame. And I am the monkey with the misspelled name." The Mechanical Christ reveals its true nature. Something put there from Adam's subconcious, or from the aliens. He's an evil little shit. Adam once thought he would control him, but soon understands further there is only so much he can. The Mechanical Christ saunters over and leans into Adam's ear, "I'll put down your disco. And take your heart away. I'll be born again." The MC stretches upwards, standing much taller and prouder than Adam. "I'm someone else. I'm someone new. I'm someone stupid just like you." The dread sinks further into Adam. The aliens grow tired of Adam's resistance and impose new code into his server to make him more complacent. The MC leans down to whisper into Adam's ear, "Do you or don't you want to take this hit?" Adam feels the change and says nothing. The MC's mouth curls under like a metal snake. "Does it make you feel like you're a part of "it"?" He relents in his bullying ways, going straight to Adam's concern, promising, "The valley of the dolls is the valley of the dead. The valley of the dolls is the valley of the dead." The MC will destroy Holy Wood. He lets Adam believe that he will save the Valley of Death and destroy everything else.
BURNING FLAG
Suddenly the constant signal feeding all the TVs in Holy Wood is hijacked. The face of the MC appears. He presents himself and his new intentions. "They want to sell it out. Buy it up. And dumb it down. A good god is hard to find. I'll join the crowd that wants to see me dead. Right now I feel I belong for the first time. Multiply by death. Divide by sex. Add up the violence. What do you get? We are all just stars and we're waiting. We are all just scarred and we're hating. We are all just stars on your burning flag." He's just spouting all kinds of nonsense. Hate against, but also trust in Holy Wood. People are dazzled by his words and that he is actually alive. Sick interest in his death and violence breeds fear and rampant drug use. Something that Holy Wood feeds on. They receive him with open arms.
COMA BLACK (EDEN EYE/APPLE OF DISCORD)
Through the body of the MC, Adam has descended to Earth. After having reconvened with the former residents of the Valley of Death, he comes in to posession of the suicide note of Coma Black. "My mouth was a crib and it was growing lies. It didn't know what love was on that day. My heart's a tiny bloodclot. I picked at it. It never heals it never goes away. I burned all the good things in the eden eye. We were too dumb to run too dead to die. This was never my world. You took the angel away. I'd kill myself to make everybody pay." CB is referring to the arrival of the aliens and how they offered salvation to all. She felt Adam's selfish acceptance of them and ascension to heaven was a betrayal of their love and his devotion to the Valley of Death. Adam is devastated. Never did he sense from someone that did so much for him would be capable of such an act. An act of desperation. An act of hate toward everything that Adam stood for and thought flowed through her. An act against love for Adam. He writhes in anguish. "I would have told her that she was the only thing that I could love in this dying world. But the simple word of "love" itself already died and went away." His thoughts dissipate into the digital ether. "Her heart's a bloodstained egg. We didn't handle with care. It's broken and bleeding. And we can never repair." We enter the moment where love and hate becomed a blurry mess for Adam. How could she pointlessly sacrifice herself to a cause that was dead, knowing he was leaving to empower it? Her love was for him and she felt he had betrayed what they stood for.
VALENTINE'S DAY
The funeral for CB that never was. Through the MC, Adam deems that they should. This is told in an over lap of conciousness of Adam and the MC. The MC could only use certain verabge. "She was the color of TV. Her mouth curled under like a metal snake." But as some form of reassurance to the tender side of Adam, the MC says, "although Holy Wood was sad, they'd remember this as Valentine's Day." Death and love, hand in hand. Adam's actions, and the lives of those around him, though reviled by Holy Wood, are held up into the light in celebration. A disembodied, prophetic voice chimes in, "Flies are waiting..." I take this as an echo of an idea of what is to come for Adam and the MC. More on that later. As if it were the changing of stories on a newscast, a narrator chimes in "In the shadow of the Valley of Death..." We go to one of Adam's followers watching the procession, and longing, "Slit our wrists, and send us to heaven!" They don't want to be in Holy Wood. They want Adam, and everything he achieved by ascending to "heaven". Things are unreal. Now the narration slips back to the MC, speaking as if he were God himself, of course in a way he is, "I saw the pregnant girl today. She didn't know that it was dead inside. Even though it was alive. Some of us a merely born to die." His insight is of a disdainful god. All seeing, and nihilistic like god truly would be, since he could see the wrath we put upon each other and how fruitless it is in the grand scheme of time that of course a being from above would have all concept of.
THE FALL OF ADAM
The fall of Adam is such that during the funeral, the Celebritarians use the death of Adam and Coma Black to further the "validity" of their ideals. The narrator is that of one of Adam's followers, "The Abraham Lincoln Town Cars arrived to dispose of our King and Queen." Coma Black is physically being disposed of, but Adam's disposal is more symbolic. They continue, "They orchestrated dramatic new scenes for Celebritarian needs." The Celebritarians say to the gathered masses, "These fools stood up against us and took their own lives in shameful suicide. The Valley of Death has crumbled, but we still stand strong." Adam's followers drop their heads in pain and remorse, the narrator continues, "When one world ends, something else begins. But without a scream. Just a whisper because we just started over again." And then the Celebritarians start their propaganda train, calling back to the prophetic dream that Adam had at the beginning of the story, "Do you love your guns, your god, and your government?! Let me hear you!" The crowd responds in rabid agreeance. Over and over again, reaching violent levels of hatred for the Valley and love for Holy Wood and its Celebritarian regime.
KING KILL 33
Adam and the MC as ego and subconcious struggle again. Adam has been forced to relive the pain, and what once was love is now hate which in turn empowers the MC to act as he is programmed. As a vengeful god. He reveals himself before the masses at the funeral to attempt inciting a riot against the Celebritarians. He speaks as Adam directly at the Celebritarians, pointing out their mistakes and threatening their lives. As the real Adam watches from inside/above he whispers as the voice in the MC's head, "And I am not sorry, and I am not sorry. This is what you deserve." The MC rallies the crowd to agree to a publice execution of the Celebritarian regime. "King Kill 33! King Kill 33!", they chant fervently. 33 degrees being a reference to the highest level of Free Mason, standing in as representation for the accusation the MC is making against them that they are a bunch of controlling phonies. Adam killed before, and "he" will again. The song ends as abruptly as the MC is rushed off stage. The regime finds no need to kill him. They simply rush him off to a place of solitary holding. They know what they have on their hands. They can again reap the hate of the crowd, and turn it into support for their agenda. If they can harvest Adam's murderous persona and have the masses believe he is on their side, the regime wins. They can control Adam, whilst maintaining and profiting from the masses. Sell the death and sex and hate right back to them. The MC is ushered away to a penthouse, overlooking the entirety of Holy Wood as well as beyond its borders to the Valley of Death.
COUNT TO SIX AND DIE (THE INFINITE VACUUM OF SPACE ENCOMPASSING)
All is quiet now. Far away from the thunderous crowds and watchful eye of the regime, Adam can more clearly ponder what has come before. The MC is celebrating having rallied the masses and not gotten killed by the regime. His power is growing. Adam envisions how Coma Black's suicide might have gone down. We hear the spin and click of the revolver she used to end her life. Adam sings one last forlorn love song to her memory. Adam is letting go more and more of what he and his followers stood for, having witnessed the power of the regime and the angels firsthand. The angels are not entirely happy with the way the MC took it upon himself to incite violence from the crowd. They need to wind him back a bit. Adam is aware of this as he is still strapped in at home base in space. "There's an angel in the lobby. He's waiting to put me line. I won't ask forgiveness. My faith has gone dry." Adam is slipping further into the grey of the MC's circuitry as he conitnues to relive Coma Black's death and swallow and drown in the responsibilty for it. The MC quiets himself long enough to hear Adam's voice, and begins to taunt him with her death by slowly counting the number of bullets in the gun that would end her life. Adam keeps singing to himself, but letting the MC take over more and more. As Adam hears the counting, he comes to terms with the pointlessness of resistance. The fruitlessness of resisting destiny. "And it spins around. And we all lay down. Some do it fast, some do it better in smaller amounts."
The story begins with Adam dreaming. The first sound is that of the revolver heard in "Count to 6 and Die", but here it is a strange echo. We then hear fireworks over cheering and yelling. There is also a sound increasing in pitch with something akin to thunder just underneath. These three things representative of moments that will show themselves again in less dream-like states. Adam is having a premonition of things to come. His own attempted suicide, the funeral of Coma Black, and his ascension to "heaven". The title GODEATGOD as a phrase is our first hint of the endless cycle that the Triptych will play out.
From here, we begin with narration from Adam as he witnesses the dream. Manson utilizes many styles in his words through00out the Triptych, this one of being of symbolism and a sort of nursery rhyme or biblical passage. This is our first taste of the duality in Adam's life of things that are actually happening and things that may just be in his head. I believe the intention was to showcase that what we are visualizing a fever dream of things to come.
Adam first has visions of martyrdom both of the past and future. He has a front row seat to the death of God. Adam has tenderness for the situation, "Do you wanna tear your knuckles down, and hold yourself? Do you want to climb off that tree?" Then he envisions modern incident in the shape of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Adam's subconcious is struggling with the concept of the power to save those he loves, though at a high price.
Then, we get more premonitions. "Before the bullets. Before the flies." He's having vague visions of Coma Black's death and his own rotting, yet "living" body. "Before authorities take out my eyes." This I will go more into later, but this is a reference to him selling out to attain more influence and power.
"The only smiling are you dolls that I made, but you are plastic and so are your brains." This is jumping past Holy Wood and into Mechanical Animals, wherein Adam is merely a conciousness trapped in space, serving as a server for the mechanical christ on earth. Adam and many before and after him were essentially "dolls" serving the will of a higher power. Though he also sees the populace of earth as "dolls" in a different way. Like the residents of Holy Wood, the stars of The Dope Show. More on that later.
"The sky is as blue as a gunshot wound." Again more evidence of strange visuals that are attributed to Adam's dream state. "If you were alive, you know we'd kill you." Adam sees the high price of being a God or Christ or angel, and we have our first taste of his inner disdain for those around him. A thought-seed that will come into play later on when dealing with "his" new found power.
THE LOVE SONG
Adam is still dreaming. It begins with drums that will later be played again on "Valentine's Day" but with some slight rhythmic and effect changes to serve as a sort of "Theme for Coma Black". This section of his dream sets up his motivation throughout the entire triptych, love and its effects on Adam, for better or worse.
Again, more symbolic imagery that supports that Adam is dreaming. As a bullet, Adam says, "I've got a crush on a pretty pistol. Should I tell her that I feel this way. I've got love songs in my head, that are killing us away." He feels guilty. He is unsure of how to handle his love for Coma Black. But he is also seeing the future, that of how when one pursues the idea of love in such a vigorous fashion in can burrow into your brain and heart like a worm that can gestate into something more sinister, hence Antichrist Superstar.
Now, we have our first narrative voice change. A voice of the controlling authority of Holy Wood preaching their propaganda to an intensely receptive crowd. "Do you love your Guns?!" The answer, "Yeah!". "God?!" The answer, "Yeah!" "Government?!" Fuck yeah!!" Adam is struggling deeply with the power that he resists against in the waking world with his music.
"She tells me I'm a pretty bullet. Gonna be a star someday. She tells me I'm a pretty bullet. An imitation Christ." Coma Black cares for Adam deeply. She loves and supports his ideals and actions, but she sees something else in him. In his dream she is telling him he will become Christ-like. He will cheat his way to power and pay a terrible price for it. Another seed planted by Adam's uncertain conscience that will cause him to fall when he walks the line.
Adam has seen his future, and it will not end well. "I've got love songs in my head, killing us away" Over and over and over. Then at the close, one more bit to show that these first two tracks were part of a dream. A strange, disembodied, jarbly voice, repeating something cyclically.
THE FIGHT SONG
Adam is wide awake now. Manson returns the style to clean tones and straightforward attack with more precise language. This is Adam's music and his message. But different than what he usually creates. He is no longer afraid but he feels like his thoughts and words are coming from somewhere he's never been.
"Isolation is the oxygen mask you make your children breathe in to survive. I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist. I'm not a slave to a world that doesn't give a shit. And when we were good, you just closed your eyes. So when we are bad, we'll scar your minds." A bold mission statement to cast off the old and it's submissive way of living. Adam sees their submissiveness as something to exploit and punish. Something in him no longer wants to stand idly by.
And then a sinsiter omen. "The death of one is a tragedy. The death of millions is just a statistic." The death of one is the Christ-death. That of those before him and later his own but also of Coma Black. The death of millions will be those of his followers that he cares for, but also those that betrayed him whom he will later exact doom and terror upon.
DISPOSABLE TEENS
The continuation of the mission statement set forth in "The Fight Song", yet even more aggressive and nihilistic, with allusions to grandeur. He's brought his thoughts out of his head and his bedroom to his band to create the first rally cry. The seeds are sprouting. "I'm an ape of God. I've got a face that's made for violence upon." God is degraded to flesh and blood and Adam is one with him in his peril. There is something telling in his statement of surving abortion. Adam was the child not meant to be. Out of hate and despair, his parents meant him dead, but miraculously survived perhaps to fulfill a greater prophecy. This is further proven by, "I want thank you mom. I want to thank you dad. For bringing this fucking world to a bitter end. I never really hated the one true God. But the god of the people I hated." There is hate growing in him. The world his parents brought to an end was one of love that Adam will never truly live in. Again he feels one with God, for his parents blame him for their unhappiness. He hates how people misappropriate their allegiance to god.
Further on his ideals, "You say you wanted evolution. The ape was a great big hit. You say want a revolution man, and I say that you're full of shit." What once was, has done nothing for true evolution/revolution. The old ways are dead and Adam has a new agenda to destroy Holy Wood. "The more that you fear us, the bigger we get. And don't be surprised if we destroy it." At all costs, in a world where he is strong in love and hate he will exact revenge and bring about a new order.
TARGET AUDIENCE (NARCISSUS NARCOSIS)
Adam and his band have converted millions to his cause. "The Fight Song" and "Disposable Teens" were massive hits, catapulting Adam to superstardom. Now he turns his sights more directly at the powers of Holy Wood and how their regime has destroyed the minds of his fans. He's running down the list of their long history of human deceit. This is his first real world mention of Kennedy and his empathy and admiration for his death. He uses Aldous Huxley and William Shakespeare as figureheads for how art is systematically used as scapegoat for the problems of the world. But the truth is that their false gods and religion have destroyed the human potential. "You're apple's sticking in to my throat. Sorry your Sunday smiles are rusty nails. And your crucifiction commercials failed." And the rest as description of their despicable religions. And his fans will not stand for it anymore because he knows and they know they've been manipulated. "I see all the young believers. Your target audience. I see all the old deceivers. We all just sing their song."
"Am I sorry for Booth and Oswald, pinks and cocaine too? I'm sorry you never check the bag in my head for a bomb and my halo was a needle hole." Here may lie the first blatant threat to Holy Wood. Not only does he make it clear that he despises everything Holy Wood stands for but is making a clear threat towards them by sympathising with historical assassins. That he himself is the weapon, and that clearly he is promoting heavy drug use as well. He is a clear and present danger.
And then he finally enters the realm of pure freedom. And another narrative voice enters. That of the one within in him. This is the first taste we get of what I'm sure is Adam's dissociative disorder though this one is the most benign. "Valley of Death we are free. Your father's your prison you see." He is no longer just the awful boy his parents hate. He loves himself and has purpose. Valley of Death is a makeshift village where he and some of his closest followers reside, on the outskirts of Holy Wood. Something akin to that featured in the video for "Man That You Fear". But there is something on the horizon. The phrase "Narcissus Narcosis" as the sub-title for the song is telling of Adam getting high on his own supply in a way. He's quickly caught up in his stature as a Christ figure and it's the beginning of his downfall.
Then, in the final moments of the track, a new, clearly robotic voice says "The President is dead. Let us pray." Adam believes the true power lies in Holy Wood, but it lies in a yet unexplained organization that has existed in Earth's orbit for millenia. They have heard the news from earth that Adam has assassinated the President and many other powers of the nation. They are pleased, for it was prophesied it would be so. They are watching Adam. Always have been. They will soon approach him with an offer he can't refuse.
"PRESIDENT DEAD"
The president, along with various friends, religious, and corporate leaders were on a plane headed to a high-profile religious summit. Adam had warned they were unaware of how powerful he could be. "President Dead is clueless." He made specific reference to checking the bag in his head in "Target Audience". Here he states, "Incubated and jet-set, the bitter thinkers buy their tickets to go find God like a piggy in a fair." Two mentions of airline related situations would support my theory of blowing up the plane en route. Adam declares, "This is for the people, they want you. Getting high on violence, baby." Adam has committed an atrocity believing fully in his violent act and that the world will eat it up in so many proper and despicable ways. No matter who hears of the incident, he will be giving them what they want.
So the residents of The Valley of Death celebrate. This is where the fireworks come to life from his dream. With copious amounts of drugs. For Adam he's used drugs his whole life. Whether it be mood enhancers or ritalin, weed or alcohol. He finds no harm in it, but his dissociative disorder is singular to him. He shares copious amounts of hard drugs with his followers. He himself now is doping the masses. He does not see the irony. "Give the pills time to work. We can't all be martyred in the winter of our discontent." Days and weeks pass. "Every night we are nailed in to place. Every night we just can't seem to ever remember the reasons why." He has his people sedated. They forget who they are, where they come from, what they stand for. And Adam himself enjoys it on a physical and mental level. He is the high priest and will not relinquish his power and he wants to make sure that everyone else knows they can not be like him.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE VALLEY OF DEATH
Some time has passed and Adam's village has fallen into shambles. There's deep sadness and a feeling of destruction in the cyclical screaming of the baby. They numbed themselves for too long and lost track of their revolution and a retaliatory attack from Holy Wood was certain. Nearly all of the Valley was slaughtered. Adam has lost his way and his faith in himself. "We have no future. Heaven wasn't made for me." He realizes the party's over and he will never become as strong as he wanted to be. "I wish that I could be the king. Then I'd know that I'm not alone." His core weakness is revealed. He is weak and vulnerable and feeling that he betrayed all those he loved. Especially Coma Black. The one he truly loved. The one who truly loved him. Before everything had happened she insisted he stop taking his medication and not use drugs and alcohol to escape anymore. That is when he had his dream at the beginning. His brain started firing on all cylinders. All his power and gusto stem from her. His mind got twisted, and then twisted another way. "She put the seeds in me. Plant this dying tree. She's a burning string. I'm just the ashes." He understands he betrayed her by using drugs again and becoming megalomaniacal. What she sees as leading to the attack and death of all their friends. He sees everything around him and in the world as death. He can't see hope or happiness anymore. In his weakness, he drops to the ground shivering in poor health and emotional despair, feeling as if his true father, God, has forsaken him. He speaks to God, and God answers. An "angel" appears to him. In order for him to redeem himself, and save his followers and his cause, he must become something else. In the wake of the attack, they could make the world believe him dead. He would die for his cause. In his martyrdom, his followers could rise to power again, fighting in his name, to resist Holy Wood. They offer him the chance of eternal life and endless power in exchange for his sacrifice. To him, he could restore the power back to his people (out of love), and make Coma Black believe he were dead as atonement for his sins (out of hate). Suddenly he finds himself in a metal shell, ascending into the light. This is where that sound of ascension comes from at the beginning of GODEATGOD. After the murder of the president, the fireworks, and the sound of going to "heaven" ringing through his being, Adam feels like he is finally fulfilling his destiny.
CRUCI-FICTION IN SPACE
Adam will evolve. We begin with a different narrator. One of the "angels" in "heaven". The alien form that has dictated human events for thousands of years under the guise of being gods or angels. To them, a day is a blink of an eye. They can see all forwards and backwards. Time is irrelevant. They are taking Adam into the orbiting station to bestow unto him what has been bestowed upon many god-like humans. To see and think as the aliens do but also incredible strength and resilience. "This is evolution. The monkey. The man. Then the gun." They've watched man rise and fall many times before. A weapon of any sort is always inevitable.
They parlay unto Adam a story of the ages. They speak of Eden, Christ, and JFK. How they intertwine in meaning and outcome. Time is inconsequential, and so is man.
Adam has risen through space and is now aboard the station, receiving the procedure. We hear the sounds of cables, or wiring skittering about. His human body is being transformed mechanically. Passable as human, but indestructible and powerful. A cyborg much like Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation. Now Adam is the narrator again. "I am a revolution. Pull my knuckles down if I could." He's is giving in to the next phase of his Christ-death, with only one last resitance. "I am a revelation, and I'm nailed to the Holy Wood." The resistant thoughts are fleeting as he understands his place in history and his duty to destroy Holy Wood.
We hear one more narrator, the echoes of in Adam's head of his followers in the Valley of Death just before he left Earth. "We are dead and tomorrow's cancelled because of things we did yesterday." A thought that plays over in his head to remind himself that his pain is temporary and that he will return to save them. And then Adam himself repeats over and over what he's been told by the aliens when his procedure began. "This is evolution. The monkey, the man, then the gun." He's taking comfort in that mantra as his conciosness is being torn from the confines of his brain into a digital server on board the orbiting station. His mind will stay intact there as his new mechanical body descends back to Earth. The final recitations of the mantra take on a a sort of reverb that implies his mind is settling quietly into its new digital home. It whispers and trails off in a digital haze.
In the liner notes to the record the final printed, yet unspoken, line is "...flies are waiting." Possible the final words he heard from the aliens before descending completely into the servers. It serves as a prophecy to them, that death is on the horizon. Through Adam. Of Adam.
A PLACE IN THE DIRT
Adam is having his another dream. The aliens let his mind rest and adjust to its new home in the server. He recalls more echoes of words from his followers. "We are damned, and we are dead. All god's children to be sent to our perfect place in the sun, in the dirt." Then Adam longs, "There's a windshield in my heart. We are bugs so smeared and scarred." He still puts the weight of the world on himself. His thoughts move to what he will do to avenge. He screams out from his digital cage. "Could you stop the meat from thinking before I swallow of it? Could you please?" He knows what he must do but the loving side of him has remorse for his future actions.
But he soon relents and accepts his status in the long line of Christ-deaths. "Put me in the motorcade. Put me in the death parade. Dress me up and make me your dying god." He will do whatever it takes to exact his anger upon Holy Wood and save his followers.
This his mind wanders in the dream to more details of the procedure, including a taste of the personality disorder we are to experience through the rest of the saga. "Angel, with needles, poked through our eyes and let the ugly light of the world in. And we were no longer blind." The usage of "our" here is Adam's first utterance to us that he is a digital conciousness in space controlling a cyborg version of himself on Earth. His mind controls the thought and relays it to the body.
He is awake now. "Now we hold the "ugly head". The Mary-whore is at the bed." The cyborg version of his self is the "ugly head". The new version of himself is stronger but not divine like his mind. "We" again is him speaking for his mind separated from his body. And some figure waits nearby to monitor his condition. Adam thinks to himself, "They've cast the shadow of "our" perfect death. In the sun. In the dirt." So shall it be done.
THE NOBODIES
Now the narrator is that of one his followers leading what's left of the people in the Valley of Death. They have left the Valley and have gone to the borders of Holy Wood, asking for immunity and acceptance into their population. "Today I am dirty, and I want to be pretty. Tomorrow, I know I'm just dirt. We are the nobodies. We wanna be somebodies." They give up. Their home is destroyed and they believe Adam dead.
The narrator shifts again to that of a representative of the high counsel of Holy Wood. "Some children died the other day. We fed machines and then we prayed. Puked up and down in morbid faith. You should have seen the ratings that day."
THE DEATH SONG
The residents of the Valley of Death are received inside the limits of Holy Wood. It's a montage of all the fucked up shit going on in the streets. Like stepping into Times Square and Sunset Boulevard, all smashed and mutated and high on fucking bath salts. "We take a pill, get a face, buy a ticket. And we hope that heaven is true." One whispers to another after walking past a storefront. "I saw a cop beat a priest on the TV. And they know they killed our heroes too." But they play it cool. Stay in line. Sing The Death Song. "Because we've got no future. And we want to be just like you. Let's sing the Death song, kids." They are taken to a neon church to repent for their sins. "We light a candle on an Earth we made into Hell. And pretend that we're in heaven. each time we do we get the blind man's ticket." But within themselves the memory of their revolution will not die. "And we know that nothing's true." They leave the church. One whispers again, "I saw a priest kill a cop on the TV." But they are overheard and questioned of their intent. They quickly back-peddle. "And I know they're our heroes too." They whisper back to the confused children, "We sing the Death song, kids, because we've got no future." They turn back to the guards and proclaim, "And we wanna be just like you."
As they are further corraled through the streets of Holy Wood to their new living quarters, they think to themselves, "We write our prayers on a little bomb, kiss it on the face and send it to god." Their prayers are a hybrid of this new religious-state they live in and the old revolution. Their little bomb is Adam. They pray to him and his memory. They want him to return and destroy this foul place.
LAMB OF GOD
The first narrator of this chapter is that of the aliens working to inform Adam of his new place on Earth. He is fully aware and resentful of his choice. They present to him the world they live in, and what they have controlled and witnessed. "There was Christ in the metal shell. There was blood on the pavement." What once was always shall be. Now they put it into modern terms to show how him how to get what he wants. "The camera will make you god. That's how Jack became sainted. If you die when there is no one watching. Then your ratings drop and you're forgotten. But if they kill you on their TV you're a martyr and a lamb of god."
Adam resists. His "heart" is broken. He has caught word that his followers have given in and assimilated into Holy Wood. "Nothing's going to change. Nothing's going to change the world."
The aliens speak again. Appealing to all the thoughts and imagery they've been able to capture from his digitized consciousness. "There was Lennon in the happy gun. There were words on the pavement. We were looking for the lamb of god. We were looking for Mark David (Chapman)." Again they plead, and again he argues with them. The aliens talk amongst themselves. "It took three days for him to die so the Born Again could buy the serial rights." They need a new tactic. They turn to Adam. "Lamb of God, have mercy on us. Lamb of God won't you grant us..." Again Adam and the aliens argue argue back and forth.
BORN AGAIN
The aliens give up. Now we have a confrontation between Adam and his new body. Adam is like the hard drive to its RAM. Two parts with their own functions shooting vaguely for the same goal. Adam the heart, it the ego and cock. The Mecanical Christ speaks, "Do you or don't you want this to be your song? It doesn't take a rebel to sing along. This art is weak in its pretty, pretty frame. And I am the monkey with the misspelled name." The Mechanical Christ reveals its true nature. Something put there from Adam's subconcious, or from the aliens. He's an evil little shit. Adam once thought he would control him, but soon understands further there is only so much he can. The Mechanical Christ saunters over and leans into Adam's ear, "I'll put down your disco. And take your heart away. I'll be born again." The MC stretches upwards, standing much taller and prouder than Adam. "I'm someone else. I'm someone new. I'm someone stupid just like you." The dread sinks further into Adam. The aliens grow tired of Adam's resistance and impose new code into his server to make him more complacent. The MC leans down to whisper into Adam's ear, "Do you or don't you want to take this hit?" Adam feels the change and says nothing. The MC's mouth curls under like a metal snake. "Does it make you feel like you're a part of "it"?" He relents in his bullying ways, going straight to Adam's concern, promising, "The valley of the dolls is the valley of the dead. The valley of the dolls is the valley of the dead." The MC will destroy Holy Wood. He lets Adam believe that he will save the Valley of Death and destroy everything else.
BURNING FLAG
Suddenly the constant signal feeding all the TVs in Holy Wood is hijacked. The face of the MC appears. He presents himself and his new intentions. "They want to sell it out. Buy it up. And dumb it down. A good god is hard to find. I'll join the crowd that wants to see me dead. Right now I feel I belong for the first time. Multiply by death. Divide by sex. Add up the violence. What do you get? We are all just stars and we're waiting. We are all just scarred and we're hating. We are all just stars on your burning flag." He's just spouting all kinds of nonsense. Hate against, but also trust in Holy Wood. People are dazzled by his words and that he is actually alive. Sick interest in his death and violence breeds fear and rampant drug use. Something that Holy Wood feeds on. They receive him with open arms.
COMA BLACK (EDEN EYE/APPLE OF DISCORD)
Through the body of the MC, Adam has descended to Earth. After having reconvened with the former residents of the Valley of Death, he comes in to posession of the suicide note of Coma Black. "My mouth was a crib and it was growing lies. It didn't know what love was on that day. My heart's a tiny bloodclot. I picked at it. It never heals it never goes away. I burned all the good things in the eden eye. We were too dumb to run too dead to die. This was never my world. You took the angel away. I'd kill myself to make everybody pay." CB is referring to the arrival of the aliens and how they offered salvation to all. She felt Adam's selfish acceptance of them and ascension to heaven was a betrayal of their love and his devotion to the Valley of Death. Adam is devastated. Never did he sense from someone that did so much for him would be capable of such an act. An act of desperation. An act of hate toward everything that Adam stood for and thought flowed through her. An act against love for Adam. He writhes in anguish. "I would have told her that she was the only thing that I could love in this dying world. But the simple word of "love" itself already died and went away." His thoughts dissipate into the digital ether. "Her heart's a bloodstained egg. We didn't handle with care. It's broken and bleeding. And we can never repair." We enter the moment where love and hate becomed a blurry mess for Adam. How could she pointlessly sacrifice herself to a cause that was dead, knowing he was leaving to empower it? Her love was for him and she felt he had betrayed what they stood for.
VALENTINE'S DAY
The funeral for CB that never was. Through the MC, Adam deems that they should. This is told in an over lap of conciousness of Adam and the MC. The MC could only use certain verabge. "She was the color of TV. Her mouth curled under like a metal snake." But as some form of reassurance to the tender side of Adam, the MC says, "although Holy Wood was sad, they'd remember this as Valentine's Day." Death and love, hand in hand. Adam's actions, and the lives of those around him, though reviled by Holy Wood, are held up into the light in celebration. A disembodied, prophetic voice chimes in, "Flies are waiting..." I take this as an echo of an idea of what is to come for Adam and the MC. More on that later. As if it were the changing of stories on a newscast, a narrator chimes in "In the shadow of the Valley of Death..." We go to one of Adam's followers watching the procession, and longing, "Slit our wrists, and send us to heaven!" They don't want to be in Holy Wood. They want Adam, and everything he achieved by ascending to "heaven". Things are unreal. Now the narration slips back to the MC, speaking as if he were God himself, of course in a way he is, "I saw the pregnant girl today. She didn't know that it was dead inside. Even though it was alive. Some of us a merely born to die." His insight is of a disdainful god. All seeing, and nihilistic like god truly would be, since he could see the wrath we put upon each other and how fruitless it is in the grand scheme of time that of course a being from above would have all concept of.
THE FALL OF ADAM
The fall of Adam is such that during the funeral, the Celebritarians use the death of Adam and Coma Black to further the "validity" of their ideals. The narrator is that of one of Adam's followers, "The Abraham Lincoln Town Cars arrived to dispose of our King and Queen." Coma Black is physically being disposed of, but Adam's disposal is more symbolic. They continue, "They orchestrated dramatic new scenes for Celebritarian needs." The Celebritarians say to the gathered masses, "These fools stood up against us and took their own lives in shameful suicide. The Valley of Death has crumbled, but we still stand strong." Adam's followers drop their heads in pain and remorse, the narrator continues, "When one world ends, something else begins. But without a scream. Just a whisper because we just started over again." And then the Celebritarians start their propaganda train, calling back to the prophetic dream that Adam had at the beginning of the story, "Do you love your guns, your god, and your government?! Let me hear you!" The crowd responds in rabid agreeance. Over and over again, reaching violent levels of hatred for the Valley and love for Holy Wood and its Celebritarian regime.
KING KILL 33
Adam and the MC as ego and subconcious struggle again. Adam has been forced to relive the pain, and what once was love is now hate which in turn empowers the MC to act as he is programmed. As a vengeful god. He reveals himself before the masses at the funeral to attempt inciting a riot against the Celebritarians. He speaks as Adam directly at the Celebritarians, pointing out their mistakes and threatening their lives. As the real Adam watches from inside/above he whispers as the voice in the MC's head, "And I am not sorry, and I am not sorry. This is what you deserve." The MC rallies the crowd to agree to a publice execution of the Celebritarian regime. "King Kill 33! King Kill 33!", they chant fervently. 33 degrees being a reference to the highest level of Free Mason, standing in as representation for the accusation the MC is making against them that they are a bunch of controlling phonies. Adam killed before, and "he" will again. The song ends as abruptly as the MC is rushed off stage. The regime finds no need to kill him. They simply rush him off to a place of solitary holding. They know what they have on their hands. They can again reap the hate of the crowd, and turn it into support for their agenda. If they can harvest Adam's murderous persona and have the masses believe he is on their side, the regime wins. They can control Adam, whilst maintaining and profiting from the masses. Sell the death and sex and hate right back to them. The MC is ushered away to a penthouse, overlooking the entirety of Holy Wood as well as beyond its borders to the Valley of Death.
COUNT TO SIX AND DIE (THE INFINITE VACUUM OF SPACE ENCOMPASSING)
All is quiet now. Far away from the thunderous crowds and watchful eye of the regime, Adam can more clearly ponder what has come before. The MC is celebrating having rallied the masses and not gotten killed by the regime. His power is growing. Adam envisions how Coma Black's suicide might have gone down. We hear the spin and click of the revolver she used to end her life. Adam sings one last forlorn love song to her memory. Adam is letting go more and more of what he and his followers stood for, having witnessed the power of the regime and the angels firsthand. The angels are not entirely happy with the way the MC took it upon himself to incite violence from the crowd. They need to wind him back a bit. Adam is aware of this as he is still strapped in at home base in space. "There's an angel in the lobby. He's waiting to put me line. I won't ask forgiveness. My faith has gone dry." Adam is slipping further into the grey of the MC's circuitry as he conitnues to relive Coma Black's death and swallow and drown in the responsibilty for it. The MC quiets himself long enough to hear Adam's voice, and begins to taunt him with her death by slowly counting the number of bullets in the gun that would end her life. Adam keeps singing to himself, but letting the MC take over more and more. As Adam hears the counting, he comes to terms with the pointlessness of resistance. The fruitlessness of resisting destiny. "And it spins around. And we all lay down. Some do it fast, some do it better in smaller amounts."